Amazon & Walmart Face New Competition From A Delivery Network For The Everyman

Moira Vetter
, ContributorI write about how entrepreneurs raise capital and manage money.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

When I spoke to Marc Gorlin, Founder and CEO of Roadie, I was drawn in by his easy storytelling nature. You get a serial entrepreneur—on his fifth company—combined with a Southern boy educated in journalism and you want to listen. I’m sure the investors felt the same way.

Yet while I listened with interest to Gorlin, it wasn’t because the story of Roadie was so well constructed. I remained interested because the idea—the business idea—was so well conceived. As a marketer I recognize the difference between constructing a story and helping one naturally unfold and grow.

The logistics industry meets the real world

We’ve watched this week as Amazon continues to eat the apple with its $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods and talk of home grocery delivery. Unfortunately, according to The Street, there is also the talk about cutting jobs in the stores. AdAge even had a story about Walmart testing employee delivery of packages as a way to feed the beast of an instant-gratification (or sometime in the next few hours) society.

And while Amazon sets out to buy the world and the Big Box leaders seek to reinvent themselves, there is another model rising due to the increased acceptance of a sharing mentality and economy.

Gorlin positions Roadie, it is an "on the way" delivery network. People want to get something from point A to point B. They aren’t sure how to package it, or who will ship it, they just know they need to get it there now. Picture eBay for delivery.

Roadie

Roadie helps The Big Chandelier get where they're going

Enter the Roadie Community. Individuals registered in the app wanting to send something can create "a gig," a delivery job. Rated drivers, already heading to the intended destination, can bid on the opportunity. The sender can review the driver’s details, ratings and select the specific driver they want to deliver their item.

It sounds like every other delivery service until I press Gorlin on what makes it different. Instead of the steadfast focus on the network, the app and the payment model—which I’m confident are well-defined—he talks about the "idea" behind the business and the people enabled by the community-centered concept. And the story is fueled by just how interesting some of this precious cargo is from your beloved dog to your Dad’s lawnmower to a box of your ex’s belongings.